diff --git a/eth_utils/decorators.py b/eth_utils/decorators.py
index 0268be25..7fe0990a 100644
--- a/eth_utils/decorators.py
+++ b/eth_utils/decorators.py
@@ -1,5 +1,6 @@
 import functools
 import itertools
+import os
 from typing import (
     Any,
     Callable,
@@ -75,6 +76,8 @@ def validate_conversion_arguments(to_wrap: Callable[..., T]) -> Callable[..., T]
     - Kwarg must be 'primitive' 'hexstr' or 'text'
     - If it is 'hexstr' or 'text' that it is a text type
     """
+    if os.environ.get("ETH_UTILS_NOVALIDATE"):
+        return to_wrap
 
     @functools.wraps(to_wrap)
     def wrapper(*args: Any, **kwargs: Any) -> T:
diff --git a/newsfragments/304.feature.rst b/newsfragments/304.feature.rst
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..8992f51f
--- /dev/null
+++ b/newsfragments/304.feature.rst
@@ -0,0 +1,3 @@
+add ETH_UTILS_NOVALIDATE env var for optimized production deployments
+
+this env will instruct eth-utils to skip some extra steps that validate its functions are being used correctly, to be used when you're already sure this is true